Roman script for Kokborok language: TSF-TISF to form human chain

way2barak, Feb 13: Members of Tripura’s indigenous students’ bodies — Twipra Students’ Federation (TSF) and Tipra Indigenous Students’ Federation (TISF) — will form a human chain on Saturday in Agartala, pressing their longstanding demand to adopt the Roman script for Kokborok, the native language of Tripura’s indigenous communities.

The human chain formation will begin at 11 am and continue till 3 pm. “We shall do a human chain demonstration from Circuit House to Astabal for our demand. Our demand is not fulfilled yet,” a TSF leader in Agartala said, appealing to all political parties including the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), TIPRA Motha, Communist Party of India (Marxist), and Congress to participate.

The row over the Kokborok script started in January 2024 after Tripura Board of Secondary Education (TBSE) chief Dhananjoy Gonchoudhury asked all examination centre in-charges to allow only the Bengali script for writing the Kokborok paper in the Class 12 and 10 board examinations, citing insufficient qualified evaluators to check answer copies written in Roman script.

Chief minister Manik Saha, earlier, ruled out the Roman script for the language and suggested creating their own indigenous script or adopting the Devanagari script.

“Is it bad to write Kokborok in Roman script? We live in a democratic country. It’s a public demand. It’s the demand of the indigenous people. But the CM is trying to confuse people. It’s a conspiracy theory. If they want the development of indigenous people, then their wishes need to be fulfilled,” the student leader added.

Kokborok received its first recognition as an official language of Tripura in 1979. Currently, the language is taught at 22 degree colleges and Tripura Central University in the state.

Last month, members of both student bodies protested for a similar demand and held a rally on January 19 to celebrate the 48th Kokborok Day in Agartala.

TIPRA Motha party founder Pradyot Kishore Debbarma, in March last year, sought the intervention of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to take action on the long-standing row over the introduction of the Roman script for the Kokborok language during the TBSE and CBSE board examinations.

Two commissions were constituted — led by former legislator Shyama Charan Tripura on June 1, 1990, and linguist Pabitra Sarkar on June 17, 2004 — but the debate over the script of the language is yet to be solved.

Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) polls are slated to be held in the next two months.